Many industrial manufacturing processes involve the transfer of materials from source locations, such as storage drums, bins, silos, etc., to destination locations, such as reactor vessels, loading and blending equipment, etc. In such processes, it is critical that material from the correct source location material be transferred to the correct destination location. Transfer of the material from an incorrect source location may cause numerous problems, including lost time and materials, defective production material, etc., thereby increasing the time and cost of the manufacturing process.
Materials are commonly transferred to destination locations by first establishing a physical connection between a source location and destination location, through the use of a conduit such as a hose, pipe, or other means of material transfer or conveyance, and then transferring the material, by way of that physical connection, using pumps, vacuum pressure, or other means of material transfer or conveyance. Connecting source and destination locations is commonly accomplished by a human operator.
Traditionally, a human operator makes the proper connections and then that operator (or another operator) visually confirms that the proper connections have been made between the source and the destination locations. For example, if the human operator's instructions require that material from source location “S1” be transferred to destination location “D2”, the human operator visually inspects the respective physical connection and confirms that source location “S1” and destination location “D2” has been connected before initiating the transfer of material.
In addition to a human operator's visual confirmation, some processes may utilize additional verification procedures including, for example, the use of a ground wire and electrical current to measure connectivity of a source/destination connection, or radio-frequency identification (RFID) to identify the presence of a connection between a source and destination. However, these techniques are imperfect. Electrical signals may be compromised by static electricity or other interference, and RFID processes are susceptible to interference and/or degradation from radio frequency generated by the machines and moving parts commonly found in industrial and material-handling environments. Moreover, the costs associated with implementing and maintaining electrical and RFID devices can be prohibitive.
As a result of unavoidable human error in various material handling processes and the shortcomings of existing technology used to augment an operator's visual inspection, there is a desire to have a system and process to reliably and economically identify the physical connections made between source end destination locations.